I'll Remember That
by cutekittenlady
Summary: After a difficult battle, Keith needs some help recuperating. Too bad Allura won't look him in the eye.


Allura was angry. Keith could tell by the silently cold way she poured the disinfectant over deep wound on his arm. Completely ignoring his hissing breath and flinches of pain.

The gash on his arm wasn't the only injury.

From head to toe Keith was covered in bruises and cuts. A bit of blood from a particularly bad cut on his forehead had already dried and crusted the side of his face.

His lip had been split open, but thankfully most of the blood had gone into his mouth. If Allura had seen him hobbling along with blood dripping from his mouth she probably would have screamed. Which he didn't need with the pounding headache. Just the sight of the princess's pained expression as she had taken in his state for the first time had been enough for Keith. Though he couldn't be sure if her eyes had actually been pained as one of his own were so swollen he couldn't see clearly out of it.

If castle ship had been in working order, then a trip into a healing pod would likely had solved a lot of the red paladin's current problems. The main one being a pair of blue cotton candy eyes that refused to look at him.

But as it turned out the castle wasn't in working order. In fact, it had taken so much heavy damage from their last battle that they were taking refuge inside of a gas giant. Shiro and Lance had remained on the bridge to keep an eye out for any enemy combatants while Pidge, Hunk, and Coran worked on fixing everything that had been damaged.

Keith and Allura were the only ones left out of the loop. And all because Keith had seen it fit to try and fight off a small militia on his own.

The paladin had tried to explain to Allura how he hadn't had any choice to do what he did. The armed guards had been on them before the last few freed prisoners could get onto the escape pod. If he'd pulled back, even just a little, one of them could have been killed. At least that was how Keith reasoned it.

It was true that he didn't retreat the moment Allura had contacted him through his helmet to tell him that the escapees had made it out and that it was time to leave. But the enemy was right in front of him. If he didn't take them down when he had the chance, then they would just go to other worlds and drag other people away from their families.

And so he'd stayed and nearly been killed.

If the others hadn't shown up when they did Keith would have been dead. All of them knew it. Keith couldn't remember the last time Shiro had given him such a look of disappointment.

"I thought you'd learned your lesson when you tried to fight Zarkon by yourself." He'd said. "I guess I was wrong."

That had stung. It had stung more that Keith thought possible. But what really surprised him was how much it stung to have the others say nothing. The silent agreement had been almost as painful as the looks on everyone's faces.

But what turned out to be even more painful than even that was the way Allura neither spoke or looked at him. Not even while she had bandaged his leg, and placed his arm into a sling. She even somehow managed to avoid eye contact while cleaning the wound on his forehead and placing a cooling pack on his swelled up eye.

Her cold robotic movements felt so… impersonal.

Keith had gotten himself hurt before now and Princess Allura had always scolded him for it. Telling him to be more careful, how the universe would be at a loss without him and the others, and a billion other things he had heard a thousand times.

He agreed with them all and yet Keith couldn't seem to help but continue placing his life into dangerous situations. It wasn't that he had a death wish or that he didn't realize his life had no worth. It was just that there were moments that he would see something happening and he'd just act.

No thinking, no planning, just pure instinct.

Allura moved Keith's hand to the cold pack so he could hold it in place himself, and moved away to focus on placing the first aid materials back into the first aid box.

Keith watched her work for awhile before finally gaining the courage to speak.

"A-Allura?"

The princess paused, but only continued her work.

"Allura?" He persisted. "Princess?"

She sighed and finally looked at him. "Is there something else you need?" she asked testily.

"I.. n-no I…"

"Then I'll be going."

"Princess wait!" He moved to stop her before a sharp pain in his ribs had him doubled over in pain.

Firm hands gripped his shoulders. "Don't move so quickly!" Allura scolded. "Sudden movements like that will just make things worse."

Keith steadied his breathing and bit back the pain before leaning back against the wall.

"W-would happen to have… a-any painkillers?" he asked.

"None." The princess admitted. "At least none that I could find."

"Well, that sucks." he hazarded a chuckle. And deeply regretted it.

"Just" Allura breathed shakily. "Just hang on. Once the pods are up and running you'll be good as new."

"Sorry." he breathed. "For making you waste your time on this."

"I-It's not a waste of my time."

Keith felt sure he could see her eyes dampen.

"I really screwed up this time."

"Yes. You did."

"Almost died."

"Yes… you did."

She was holding back, he could tell.

Allura was arguably one of the strongest people Keith had ever known. Then again, so was everyone on the castleship. But the princess was special. Especially to him.

"I'm sorry." He said it as quietly as he could and reached for her again. This time much more slowly and gently than he had before.

Cupping her cheek in his hand, he whispered. "Please, don't cry."

Damp tears flowed onto Keith's hand as Allura took it and leaned in closer.

"If you ever do anything like this again,"Though her voice shook with the tears, there was still a very hard tone to her words. "I'll have your hide."

Keith wrapped his free arm around her shoulders and drew the princess into a hug. Allura let her body relax against his and rested her head into the crook of his neck..

"I'll remember that." He smiled as he closed his eyes and allowed himself to dream.


End file.
